Well the time has finally come for me to write this letter. I have listened to all the people who think they had the first food truck in St. Albert. I hate to burst your bubble but we had a food truck 30 years ago when our kids were young teenagers. I am sure there was a lot of young kids at that time that are about 40-45 years old who would remember the “G Bunch Lunch.” We had a contest amongst our children’s friends to find a name for it and that was the name we picked. We also gave a free meal to the best name winner.
It was not easy to get going. Every place we parked, the city would make us move. Even when we cleaned out some brush across from City Hall and made some picnic tables to make it look nice. The city said it was OK and two weeks later they came and told us we couldn’t park there (even though some of them came to eat). I guess things never change. They gave us instructions on what equipment for cleaning and operation we had to have. Our lunch wagon looked better than a lot of the ones today and I might add, was a lot cleaner.
We worked at BMX races with our kids and gave each race winner a treat of their choice. We also parked next to the Perron Street Arena (Ducky Dome) and various other short stops along the way. We finally settled on the road near the old city dump while the Kinsmen construction was going on. Some names of our burgers were the “Biggie,” “Mr. G” and the “Mrs. G.” We had a decent business there because construction workers knew where to find good food. We even sat there one night until around 3 a.m. feeding the folks from the rodeo as they did their tear down. They appreciated us by eating all the food we had with us!
After a lot of years in Edmonton, doing spots like the south-side Canadian Tire and Canada Days at the legislative grounds, we tried for the St. Albert location of Canadian Tire but were turned down. We were the first “Fat Franks” wagon at the farmers market until we sold it a few years ago as we are older and it was too much to keep up.
So, to all of you with food trucks, you weren’t the first food truck in St. Albert and you have no idea how hard it was to get started. Things have changed a lot since then and it’s a whole lot easier now. Anyone who remembers us back then, a comment of support would be nice.
Marilyn Garbowsky, St. Albert
